Five star - Latest Top Rated Film Reviews from the Guardian

Surréalisme review – monstrous, deviant, glorious fun as the movement hits 100
From Ernst to Dalí, from Maar to De Chirico, this is a dazzling riot of creativity, celebrating the artistic potential of the unconscious – and shoes - Jonathan Jones
The Brutalist review – epic Adrien Brody postwar architectural drama stuns and electrifies
In a superb performance, Brody plays a Hungarian architect and Holocaust survivor who comes to the US and begins a distinguished career under the patronage of a wealthy man - Peter Bradshaw
Riefenstahl review – deep-dive study takes down the Nazis’ favourite director
Andres Veiel shows how the film-maker loved by Hitler hit the heights with her Berlin Olympics movie – and how she tried and failed to save her Nazi-tinged reputation - Xan Brooks
The Vourdalak review – deviously fun horror is très drôle vampire chamber piece
A foppish French aristocrat encounters a clan of peasants and their blood-sucking patriarch in a deliriously camp period yarn - Phil Hoad
How to Save a Dead Friend review – moving Russian anthem for doomed youth
A sense of inevitable finality permeates every frame of Marusya Syroechkovskaya’s documentary, composed of personal footage shot over a decade - Phuong Le
Piece by Piece review – Pharrell’s Lego biopic deserves to be a blockbuster
Toronto film festival: The endlessly inventive musician gets an unlikely yet deserving biopic told via plastic bricks – a big swing that more than pays off - Radheyan Simonpillai in Toronto
The Assessment review – Alicia Vikander is future parents’ worst nightmare
In a world ravaged by climate change, a couple wanting children have to submit to an intrusive assessment of their relationship in Fleur Fortuné’s surreal, stylish debut - Peter Bradshaw
The Fire Inside review – blazing boxing drama packs a serious punch
The story of gold medal-winning boxer Claressa ‘T-Rex’ Shields makes for a gutsy crowd-pleaser with a fantastic performance from Brian Tyree Henry as coach - Benjamin Lee in Toronto
Apollo 13: Survival review – gripping documentary on Nasa’s near-disastrous lunar mission
Using newly revealed archive footage and dramatic reconstructions, director Peter Middleton breathes new life into the familiar events of 1970 - Wendy Ide
Red Rooms review – dark, unnerving French-language chiller
A young woman becomes obsessed with the trial of a man accused of three horrific livestreamed murders in Canadian director Pascal Plante’s stylish psychological thriller - Wendy Ide
We Live in Time review – Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh charm in heartfelt weepie
There are two excellent performances at the centre of a time-hopping romance that tackles well-trodden ground with maturity - Benjamin Lee in Toronto
Hard Truths review – a Mike Leigh classic of day-to-day disillusionment and courage
Marianne Jean-Baptiste is exceptional as a woman in the terrifying endgame of depression in this deeply sober and compassionate drama, not without flashes of fun - Peter Bradshaw
April review – Dea Kulumbegashvili comes into her own with haunting abortion drama
Shocking violence is tempered by strange, silent sequences in a sophomore feature about an obstetrician under investigation, in which buried trauma has echoes of The Piano Teacher - Peter Bradshaw
Apollo 13: Survival review – fascinating, if clinical, retelling of space history
Netflix’s archival documentary relives the near-fatal explosion of 1970 with remarkable and urgent footage - Adrian Horton
Rebel Ridge review – electrifying Netflix crime thriller is a knockout
Green Room director Jeremy Saulnier’s crackerjack combo of action thriller and social drama is one of the year’s most undeniably entertaining films - Benjamin Lee
Queer review – Daniel Craig is needy, horny and mesmeric in Guadagnino’s erotic drama
Craig plays an American expat living indolently in Mexico City in this sometimes uproarious adaptation of William Burroughs’ autobiographical novel - Peter Bradshaw
The Room Next Door review – Almodóvar spins a gorgeous, fragile tale of life and death
The Spanish director’s first English-language feature sees Tilda Swinton’s dying journalist trying to reconnect with an old friend played by Julianne Moore - Xan Brooks
From Darkness to Light review – Jerry Lewis’ infamous Holocaust film rescued from oblivion
Lewis grappled with serious themes with The Day the Clown Cried, but as this documentary reveals, to the end he remained haunted by its failure - Xan Brooks
Mandoob (Night Courier) review – Saudi crime thriller delves into the secrets of Riyadh
Director Ali Kalthami shows the city as never before, through the eyes of a desperate delivery man negotiating a world of gangsters and illegal alcohol - Wendy Ide
The Count of Monte Cristo review – highly enjoyable French costume spectacle
Three Musketeers screenwriters Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte move on to Dumas’s swashbuckling tale of revenge with verve - Wendy Ide
Sing Sing review – Colman Domingo is magnetic in moving real-life US prison drama
The US actor heads a cast largely made up of former inmates in Greg Kwedar’s low-key tale about the redemptive power of theatre - Wendy Ide
The Order review – Jude Law leads neo-Nazi-hunting thriller with confident authority
Law is commanding opposite an icy Nicholas Hoult in true-crime story about the takedown of a far right militia in the 1980s - Jonathan Romney
And Their Children After Them review – racism and revenge festers in smalltown France
Nineties-set drama adapted from the bestselling novel zeroes in on tensions in a post-industrial community, sparked by a feud over a motorbike - Xan Brooks
Black Dog review – ex-con and stray dog bond in searching Chinese social drama
Guan Hu’s low-key Cannes winner is a heartfelt tale of redemption set against the dramatic backdrop of the Gobi desert - Wendy Ide
One to One: John & Yoko review – fun, fierce, full-blooded portrait of Lennon and Ono
Kevin Macdonald’s surprising documentary catches a radioactively charismatic Lennon enjoying his rambunctious post-Beatles heyday in New York - Xan Brooks
Maria review – Angelina Jolie plays the diva in magnificent stroll around the cult of Callas
Jolie is a painting to be stared at in Pablo Larraín’s opulent drama, tottering around Paris in the 70s and drawing us in to tragedy as thoroughly as Bellini or Puccini - Xan Brooks
Separated review – Errol Morris’s quietly furious takedown of Trump’s inhumane border policy
Morris’s forensic account of those who implemented family separation makes for harrowing viewing - Xan Brooks
Touch review – unashamedly emotional love story travels back to the 1960s
Baltasar Kormákur’s beautifully shot romance sees Kristófer try to track down Miko, a lifetime after their youthful love affair is unexpectedly cut short - Catherine Bray
Broken Bird review – creepily brilliant psych-horror of control-freak funeral-parlour attendant
Rebecca Calder is superbly supple as the damaged protagonist in a richly imagined horror story - Phil Hoad
Paradise Is Burning review – teens survive on wits in dreamy coming-of-age drama
Mika Gustafson’s feature has some obvious influences in The Virgin Suicides or American Honey but wears them lightly in this fresh and beautifully cut debut - Leslie Felperin
Black Dog review – state-of-the-Chinese-nation drama with feelgood furry antics
A squadron of dog catchers, sent into the Gobi desert to round up a bevy of hounds, adds stark absurdism to this commentary on Chinese society - Phil Hoad
Blink Twice review – Zoë Kravitz’s thrilling, chilling directorial debut
Naomi Ackie and Channing Tatum star in Kravitz’s superbly twisted romance, which takes gender politics into a brutal combat zone - Wendy Ide
Between the Temples review – bittersweet screwball comedy with shades of Harold and Maude
Playing a bereaved synagogue cantor and his former primary school music teacher, Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane light up Nathan Silver’s endearing odd couple tale - Wendy Ide
Kneecap review – fictionalised origin story is one of the funniest films of the year
Belfast rappers Kneecap use the Irish language as their weapon in Rich Peppiatt’s exhilarating comedy drama co-starring Michael Fassbender - Wendy Ide
Nothing But the Best review – raffish Alan Bates comedy is a time capsule of 60s London
Millicent Martin and Denholm Elliott also star in Clive Donner’s 1964 satire on class, filled with macabre twists - Peter Bradshaw
Lollipop review – impassioned, head-butting indictment of the social-care system
Informed by her own experiences, Daisy-May Hudson’s portrait of a woman trying to regain custody of her kids is surprisingly even-handed - Peter Bradshaw
Heretic review – Hugh Grant has devilishly dark fun in talky, twisty horror
The actor takes an unusually villainous turn in a button-pushing descent into hell that works best before its cards are revealed - Benjamin Lee in Toronto
Relay review – Riz Ahmed is a fixer on a mission in a throwback thriller
Hell or High Water’s David Mackenzie attempts to recall 70s paranoid thrillers in a sleek, suspenseful watch before it makes a wrong turn - Benjamin Lee in Toronto
Place of Bones review – Heather Graham takes on some bad dudes in gutsy budget western
A mother and daughter’s isolated life is upended by the arrival of an injured villain and the trouble that follows – but a quiet meditation on womanhood in the west this ain’t - Catherine Bray
Firebrand review – magnetic Alicia Vikander and glorious Jude Law lift cautious Tudor court drama
Law’s fabulously monstrous Henry VIII is the best thing about this 21st-century take on the king’s last wife, Katherine Parr - Wendy Ide
Unstoppable review – Jennifer Lopez and Jharrel Jerome lift routine sports drama
Impassioned performances help to buoy a fact-based wrestling drama that sticks too closely to formula - Benjamin Lee in Toronto
Rebel Ridge review – Aaron Pierre impresses in small-town US action thriller
The British actor plays an ex-marine grappling with police corruption in Jeremy Saulnier’s overcomplicated crime movie - Wendy Ide
Starve Acre review – Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark hole up in brooding Yorkshire folk-horror
A grieving couple are plagued by an ancient menace – if not actual scares – in Daniel Kokotajlo’s adaptation of Andrew Michael Hurley’s novel - Wendy Ide
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice review – Tim Burton has fun with pleasingly idiosyncratic sequel
The director’s long-imagined follow-up to his 1988 cult movie Beetlejuice revels in some gleefully silly moments while narrowly avoiding that dated feeling - Wendy Ide
The Front Room review – Brandy Norwood shines in muddled camp horror
The actor-singer returns to horror as a new mother confronted with the hell of living with her creepy and boundary-crossing mother-in-law - Adrian Horton
Firebrand review – Jude Law’s obese and oozy Henry VIII rules supreme in Catherine Parr drama
The ailing king’s misogyny is compellingly disturbing but Alicia Vikander is underused as his final wife - Peter Bradshaw
Damaged review – Samuel L Jackson comes to Edinburgh in crime thriller
Vincent Cassel and Gianni Capaldi complete an improbable trio on the hunt for a serial killer in this absurd police procedural – one for the so-bad-it’s-good genre - Catherine Bray
Joker: Folie à Deux review – Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga musical spirals out of tune
There’s a great supporting cast and a barnstorming first act but Todd Phillips’s much-hyped Gotham sequel proves claustrophobic and repetitive - Peter Bradshaw
2073 review – Asif Kapadia rages against the death of democracy and our planet
The documentary-maker loses some nuance but he is tackling big issues, as Samantha Morton picks through post-apocalyptic ruins in a sombre futurist reverie - Peter Bradshaw
Red Rooms review – fashion model fixates on a serial-killer in unsettling dark-web horror
Juliette Gariépy’s disquieting performance overcomes the more unbelievable elements of this tale of snuff-movie murder rooms - Peter Bradshaw
The Whip review – carer turns to crime in a heist movie with a conscience
Austerity-minded MPs are the target of this likable drama, in which a struggling carer hatches an implausible plan to get her own back on the government - Cath Clarke
My First Film review – charismatic new star beefs up audacious grad school-style project
Slippery and unsubtle, Zia Anger’s film about a film-maker is saved from self-indulgence by its sly humour - Leslie Felperin
Fitting In review – rare biological condition gets thrown into typical teen movie mix
Writer-director Molly McGlynn’s own experience adds a new dimension to the usual tropes of virginity loss, relationships and high school politics - Catherine Bray
Fragile Memory review – a personal tribute to a prolific Soviet film-maker
Ihor Ivanko’s documentary looks at his grandfather Leonid Burlaka’s career through a treasure trove of undeveloped photos and explores the role film has in preserving history - Phuong Le
Don’t Forget to Remember review – art, identity and the slow disintegration of dementia
This elegiac Irish film documents the relationship between street artist Asbestos and his mother, and the public art project he makes to help process his grief - Phil Hoad
Wolfs review – Pitt and Clooney are job-sharing loners in Spidey-meme of a thriller
Brad Pitt and George Clooney have near identical roles as veteran crime fixers who are called into the same assignment in a fun, infectious caper - Xan Brooks
I’m Still Here review – loving family negotiates the horror of Brazil’s military rule
Walter Salles’s first drama feature since 2012 tells the story of the Paivas, whose sunny 70s existence is wrecked by the arrest and disappearance of their father - Xan Brooks
Paradise Is Burning review – compelling Swedish drama of three abandoned sisters
United by love and feral freedom, the girls dodge the clutches of social services in Mika Gustafson’s beautifully performed feature debut - Wendy Ide
Campo di Battaglia review – medicos face off in stately first world war hospital drama
Gianni Amelio’s saga is set in 1918, when a pair of Italian doctors take very different approaches to treating the wounded that pass through their wards - Xan Brooks
Kill the Jockey review – a mercurial, skittish crime drama whose hero is a drug-fuelled rogue
Luis Ortega’s film veers off the racetrack as jockey Remo drifts around the city streets, pursued by a pregnant girlfriend who wants him back and a gangster who wants him dead - Xan Brooks
Sing Sing review – Colman Domingo is larger than life in big-hearted prison drama
Inspired by a project that uses the arts for rehabilitation, this is an uplifting, energetic film – but Domingo’s showy performance is a little out of place - Peter Bradshaw
The Count of Monte Cristo review – a good-looking gallop through Dumas’ tale of revenge
Pierre Niney plays the man behind the multiple masks in this fast-moving adaptation that needs a touch more finesse - Phil Hoad
And Mrs review – love never dies for Aisling Bea in barmy Brit romcom
This Richard Curtis-like comedy sees Bea on fine form as she tries to marry her her dead boyfriend, supported by a knockout cast including Harriet Walter and Susan Wokoma - Cath Clarke
Point of Change review – how the arrival ‘surf explorers’ altered a tiny Indian Ocean paradise
Rebecca Coley’s documentary shows how Australian surfers found peace and perfect tubular waves on Nias – and led inevitably to boatloads of tourists and pollution - Leslie Felperin
Mandoob (Night Courier) review – darkly amusing gig-economy satire on the mean streets of Riyadh
Director Ali Kalthami’s bleak and funny portrait of toxic masculinity was a massive hit in its home country of Saudi Arabia - Cath Clarke
Broca’s Aphasia review – Taiwanese sex doll service offers eerie insight into male domain
Su Ming-yen’s uncanny delve into the world of artificial women is both fascinatingly mundane and quietly unsettling - Phuong Le
Last Things review – stones yield up their memories in poetic vision of life on Earth
Deborah Stratman’s film looks far beyond humanity for answers to the big questions of survival, gathering the words of scientists and imaginative writers - Phuong Le
The Mountain Within Me review – feelgood climbing doc is hard to resist
Former rugby player Ed Jackson overcomes a devastating spinal injury to take on mountains in Polly Steele’s handsome if formulaic film - Wendy Ide
Cuckoo review – Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens carry bonkers Alpine body horror
The Euphoria star plays a US teen uprooted to a dodgy German spa resort, where Stevens is in full scenery-chewing mode, in Tilman Singer’s hot mess of a thriller - Wendy Ide
The Killer review – John Woo’s John Woo remake is a low-stakes fun time
The director revisits his 1989 classic with a Paris-set update that doesn’t attempt anything all that daring but reconfirms his action credentials - Jesse Hassenger
Blink Twice review – Zoe Kravitz’s stylish yet scattered #MeToo thriller
There are deafening echoes of Get Out, Don’t Worry Darling and The Menu in this propulsive yet ultimately unwieldy attempt to use Epstein’s island as genre inspiration - Benjamin Lee
Kneecap review – Irish-language hip-hop trio in fiercely riotous Belfast romp
The story of Northern Irish teenagers who reinvent the political purpose of hip-hop, the film is most uproarious when the energy of the music lets loose - Peter Bradshaw
Together With Lorenza Mazzetti review – compelling final testament from overlooked director
The Italian director, whose film Together made a key contribution to the Free Cinema movement in the UK, died in 2020 but this interview is a fitting tribute - Andrew Pulver
The Mountain Within Me review – disabled heroes take on the Himalayas
Documentary traces Ed Jackson’s extraordinary journey from paraplegia to extreme climbing, and follows him through spectacular landscapes - Leslie Felperin
Hell Hole review – creature feature is fracking fun
A crew of engineers drilling in Serbia find more than they bargained for in this endearing, low-budget horror from the Adams family - Catherine Bray
The Home Game review – sweet and heartwarming story of Iceland’s footballing underdogs
This plucky documentary tells of the small town whose residents created its first football pitch, and the years that followed chasing their goal - Catherine Bray
Widow Clicquot review – vine-whispering champagne-maker gets the biopic treatment
Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot ascends from demure young lover to patriarchy-defying innovator in this attractive but not quite grand cru biopic - Phil Hoad
Adam Ondra: Pushing the Limits review – Czech Spider-Man climbs all the way to Olympics
Jan Šimánek and Petr Záruba’s intimate documentary reveals the vulnerabilities behind sporting success as rock climber Ondra trains for Tokyo 2020 - Phuong Le
The Return review – Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche reunite in drab drama
The English Patient co-stars come together for Uberto Pasolini’s new take on The Odyssey, a handsome misfire - Radheyan Simonpillai in Toronto
Boonie Bears: Time Twist review - Chinese animation takes kids’ series into sci-fi yarn
It is difficult to discern from this latest film spinoff from the TV series why these two bears and their friend Vick have been so successful - Catherine Bray
Nightbitch review – Amy Adams turns into a dog in rough dark comedy
The multiple Oscar nominee has some fun as a mother at the end of her tether but this unsubtle mix of comedy and horror doesn’t go far enough - Benjamin Lee in Toronto
Eden review – Ron Howard’s nasty, starry survival thriller falls over the edge
Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, Sydney Sweeney and Ana de Armas fight for supremacy on a remote island in this 1930s-set true story that descends into tiresomely silly reversals - Benjamin Lee in Toronto
Elton John: Never Too Late review – thin portrait of a musical genius
The superstar’s husband and documentarian RJ Cutler have assembled a documentary that benefits from access but provides a limited view - Radheyan Simonpillai in Toronto
The Penguin Lessons review – Steve Coogan and feathered friend dip into 70s Argentina
Tom Michell’s feelgood memoir could have been a winning buddy movie – it just needed a little less bird and a bit more politics - Ryan Gilbey
The Cut review – Orlando Bloom goes through hell in sordid boxing thriller
The actor gives a physically committed performance as a retired boxer cutting weight with dangerous speed in a silly and overcooked drama - Benjamin Lee
Nutcrackers review – Ben Stiller finds little joy in middling Christmas comedy
The actor returns to the big screen for his first leading role since 2017 yet David Gordon Green’s charmless throwback comedy fails to justify why - Benjamin Lee in Toronto
Paul and Paulette Take a Bath review – misjudged romance takes wince-inducing wrong turn
Jethro Massey’s New Wave-style feature debut about a couple who meet in Paris is quirky and well-acted but strikes some peculiar false notes with Nazi gags - Peter Bradshaw
Maldoror review – true-crime serial killer procedural induces stomach-turning horror
Inspired by a notorious real-life case, Fabrice Du Welz’s film starts strong but gets lost in the murky waters of conspiracy - Peter Bradshaw
Close to You review – Elliot Page struggles to bring transgender drama to life
Dominic Savage’s film about a man whose family do not understand his transition feels underpowered - Wendy Ide
Babygirl review – Nicole Kidman overwhelmed by lust as CEO having torrid and toxic affair
Halina Reijn’s film about a company executive’s carnal adventure with her intern is expertly done but suspect at its core, despite Kidman’s bold performance - Xan Brooks
AfrAId review – throwaway AI-themed horror devoid of suspense
A sinister Alexa upgrade exerts control on California family in an increasingly nonsensical attempt to capture the moment - Benjamin Lee
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice review – Tim Burton sequel takes retro joyride through old haunts
Burton’s game attempt to bring the 1980s horror-comedy back from the spirit world is full of gaudy set-pieces but fails to add much to the original - Xan Brooks
Farming the Revolution review – low-key look at Indian farmers’ street-camp protests
Documentary on the 2020-21 protests in India over three farm acts is interesting in patches, but doesn’t go anywhere unexpected - Leslie Felperin
Widow Clicquot review – grande dame of champagne biopic falls flat
Neither Haley Bennett as the Veuve Clicquot heir nor the film’s proto-feminist messaging can bring this bubbles-to-riches drama to life - Wendy Ide
Incoming review – Netflix’s Superbad-esque comedy is super unfunny
Raucous teen film about out-of-control high school party never finds its footing, relying on tiresome gross-out humor - Adrian Horton
The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat review – female friendship saga falls flat
Adaptation of Edward Kelsey Moore’s novel has admirable intentions and terrific cast but is too rushed to soar - Radheyan Simonpillai
The 39 Steps review – comic homage to Hitchcock thriller goes off the rails
With four actors playing 130 parts, this revival of Patrick Barlow’s take on the spy film is fitfully funny but ultimately frustrating - Chris Wiegand
The Last Showgirl review – Pamela Anderson’s big comeback is a big disappointment
An empty-headed attempt to give the star her version of The Wrestler is a regrettable misfire - Benjamin Lee in Toronto
Harvest review – folk non-horror an exasperating experience
Dastardly deeds are afoot in an imagined medieval village with unscrupulous landowners in this directionless study of inauthenticity - Peter Bradshaw
The Crow review – unfathomably awful goth remake
Rupert Sanders’ attempt to resurrect the 1994 cult revenge thriller has become one of 2024’s most atrocious films - Benjamin Lee